3 comments:

Here is my father's version of that. He couldn't remember if he had heard it from one of his business colleagues in the south or if he read it a book by John Steinbeck. People go to camp meetings which as we all know are charismatic practice They get wound up and...Love thy neighbor...and thy neighbor's wife, daughter,ect,ect. A friend of mine in Georgia told me that one time when she was a teenager a classmate invited her to go to a camp meeting. She accepted the invitation but then her parents firmly refused to let her go it.Sassountsi David

Thanks for your comment, Sassountsi David! It reminded Marash Girl that her father loved Mark Twain, and read Twain's works often. Frankly, the "Love your neighbor" twist sounds exactly like a Mark Twain comment! I'll bet that's where Peter first came upon the joke, or at the very least, where he found a kindred spirit!

My dad was also a great fan of Mark Twain. The "Love thy neighbor twist does sound like something that Twain would have said.It could also have been said by Twain's contemporary and colleague Ambrose Bierce, the author of "The Devil's Dictionary".